Chapter Text
Keris has finally coaxed Sasi into doing her mind-probing, and so they gather together in one of Keris’ (totally unused) meditation chambers. The white walls are tall and plain.
“I will stop if you ask me to,” Sasi says, a trifle morosely. “I don’t really want to be doing this to you, but you asked for it.”
Keris takes a breath - real air, for once - and winds her hands into her hair. There are apples and chalcanth waiting on a table just outside the door. If this is going to hurt - even if it gets her the memories she wants - she intends to have comfort food waiting afterwards.
“Okay,” she says. “First question. What my parents were like.” She braces herself, but doesn’t close her eyes. Keeping them open is more of a distraction.
There’s a chiming noise in Keris’ head, like someone’s just flicked a wineglass. And then the pain spikes. It feels like someone’s stabbing her in the head. Like needles are being forced in through her ears and eyes and nose and mouth, and they’re poking around inside.
((Roll Conviction))
And then
a big broad shouldered man, a giant of a man, with paler skin, his back turned to her, lit by the red of the forge. he turns and shouts at her, about how she’s not meant to come in here, it isn’t safe, and then sweeps her up in his arms and carries her, talking to her more gently before he leaves her with an older boy, maybe ten or so.
a darker skinned woman, darker than keris, almost far-south black who’s tall and thin and wears a pretty gold necklace around her long neck bounces her up on her knee while she talks to another woman.
she’s tiny, and carried in a sling on someone’s back. the broad shouldered man and the woman kiss, and carry her to the river, to dump her and while she’s crying anoint her forehead with ash.
the pounding of metal and she counts the chimes, her mother telling her the numbers for each hit.
((Conviction 3. Uh. Fail.))
Keris screams, tears leaking from her eyes. She staggers back, vaguely aware of more mundane pain - oh, right, she’s yanked a few hairs out. She waves at Sasi to stop, breathing hard, and collapses against the wall.
She sits there for quite a long time, resting her head against the cool marble. Her ears are ringing faintly, and her head is pounding. But she can still remember the images. Their faces.
She opens her eyes, and flinches. Sasi is looking more morose than ever, and seems unsure of whether or not to offer assistance.
“W-” Keris croaks, and reaches out through the door with a shaking hair-tendril to snag a vial of chalcanth. It burns down her raw throat, but the rush of energy makes her feel a bit better.
“We’re... no’ doing tha’ ‘gain today,” she forces out. “Or. Tomorrow, either. But...” and now the tears leaking from her eyes have a different cause; not just from the lingering pain. “You saw them. Didn’t you? Saw them.”
Sasi nods simply while Keris swallows painfully. There were other memories too. They were all crammed in together. Faces she couldn’t remember, ever. Plucked out of her skull and she got to see them now, like for the first time ever.
She holds her hair out limply for a hug, more for her own comfort than to reassure Sasi. Though if it does that too, it’s certainly a nice side-benefit.
Sasi sweeps her up in her arms, and cradles the shorter woman to her chest. Keris clings to her, barely enjoying the fact that their height difference means she gets to rest her head on Sasi’s bosom when they hold each other like that. “I’m sorry,” Sasi whispers. “I... I wouldn’t let anyone do that to me.”
“S’kay,” Keris mumbles. “Worth it, to see them. To remember.” She frowns. “Not looking forward to the next time, though. Think I’ll, uh. Forget about the questions past that one. Just...” she winces again, pressing a hand to her throbbing eye. “Just where I’m from. Where it was.”
“... maybe give it a week or so,” she decides, and reaches for the apples.
Keris eats all the apples.
It is in fact twelve screams of the tomescu until she feels ready to try again - and she can’t help but stop her hair flicking nervously as she faces Sasi again. She has a strip of leather to hold onto this time; unwilling to yank any more hair out while spasming.
“Are you sure?” Sasi asks again, in the white room again.
Keris nods jerkily. “Yeah. Do it before I change my mind and chicken out again. This question is the only other one I need.” She swallows. “Where was I from?”
((Roll Conviction not to chicken out))
((3 dice, 3 SUX! HAH! THANK YOU, DICE FAIRIES!))
Keris swallows. The pain comes. And then;
“are you heading to huzei, dear?”
“yes. i need to talk to the coal trader. it’s a hassle, but the last batch was low quality. the iron is flawed.”
“i see. can you look after keris... no, no. i understand.”
“i’ll be back tomorrow. i love you.”
someone kisses keris on the forehead, and she mutters “‘ove you.”
the river is high on its banks, and they’re singing songs to the god of the river which runs through baisha, trying to get him to lower the level and save them rain for the dry season. she’s nudged forwards, holding her garland of flowers, and totters forwards to cast them into the river.
((So, Keris is from a village called Baisha, and Huzei was... probably the nearest market town))
She sags, gasping. It... hurt very slightly less this time. Maybe because she knew it was coming, and how.
... oh. She snapped the leather cord. And that was blood ape leather, too. Never mind, then. She takes a vial of chalcanth blindly and gratefully from Sasi and downs it.
“Baisha,” she whispers. “Wow, okay. Not... doing that again, ‘less it’s really, really ‘portant. But. Yeah. Baisha. And Huzei. Was a place. People were going for coal. And trading.”
Sasi shakes her head. “Never heard of it,” she says.
Keris nods tiredly. “Dulmea? The maps,” she requests. Her coadjutor passes them out - the good ones of the Scavenger Lands, with all the trade routes and market towns noted down. If Huzei is anywhere in the Scavenger Lands, it’ll be on these somewhere. It’s just a matter of looking. Through all of them. At the really fine print and tiny lettering. Across the wide, wide, wide expanse of maps.
... yeah, no. That’s not happening.
“Servant!” Keris calls. It’s a moment or two before an amphelisia enters the room, and Keris holds the maps out to it limply. “Get some of the servants to go over these,” she tells it. “Carefully. Find ‘Huzei’, and ‘Baisha’ if it’s on them anywhere. Don’t damage them.”
This might be a problem, Keris is loathe to admit. The Scavenger Lands are lousy with market towns.
She leaves it with the serfs, and hopes that they don’t find too many towns with the same name. There can’t be too many that are also close to a village called Baisha based on a river, but it’ll be a pain to check more than two or three, and she has things that need doing.
((Ah, you may not be understanding the kind of maps which exist in this era. Yeah, you’re going to have market towns at the lowest level))
((No Ordinance Survey or Doomsday Book here))
((... I’m thinking that Huzei, as a market town, will hopefully be on there (if only as a dot along a trade route), and that she can then visit all the Huzeis and look at the nearby villages. She isn’t thinking that Baisha will be on the maps, but that will help pick out the right Huzei if there’s more than one. Or are you saying that Huzei would be too small, too?))
((Though I suppose that depends on the roll results.))
((Oh, right. They might have it. Remember, Keris is looking at maps for an area about the size of Europe, looking at the market town level))
((Yeah. Hmm. Roll for it, using the +1 map bonus?))
((... though, uh, not sure what I roll.))
((The demon rolls, I guess.)
((Cog + Lore))
((... uh. Hmm. I’ll assume it got given to some Cannibal Bureaucrats to pour over and read, since they actually, you know, like doing that. So, hmm. Int 4, Lore 3... though wouldn’t it be Investigation? Then again, that’s 3 too, so fine, w/e. +1 for the maps is 8. Aaaaand 1 sux. This is what you get for delegating, Keris. THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.))
((It will take Keris quite a long time to realise that the maps are useless, as it will take them quite a while))
((Hey! They’re not useless! Her ones of the Southwest; they’re useless.))
((These ones are merely unhelpful for this question.))
((So, uh... what now?))
((Hmm. Well, that seems to cover most of the in-play stuff, so... move onto generalised downtime descriptions and I get to spend ALL THE XP?))
((Seriously, I think I'm going to wind up spending almost every point of banked mortal xp I have.))